Build Great Places / #thisiscnu

Public Art Manager, City of Fort Wayne

Dan Baisden is a neighborhood planner and the Public Art Manager for the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana and serves as the Vice-Chair for CNU Midwest. Dan is a graduate of Arizona State University with degrees in Urban Planning and Sociology and is currently attending Penn State University pursuing a graduate degree in Community Development. Growing up outside of Akron Ohio, Dan has long been passionate about the Legacy Cities and the forgotten post-industrial communities of the Midwest and spends time and effort in researching and practicing ways we can bring great urbanism, community development, and engagement strategies to these communities moving forward. Prior to working in Urban Planning and Community Development, he spent a dozen years managing radio stations in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Arizona.

Vice President of Behavioral Health Services, Thriving Mind South Florida

Carol is a member of the executive leadership team at TMSF (formerly the South Florida Behavioral Health Network) and oversees nationally-recognized initiatives that have led to a drastic reduction in incarceration for people with behavioral health issues and the advancement of collaborative ventures to reduce street homelessness.

Prior to joining TMSF, Carol worked for over a decade at Fellowship House, a psycho-social rehabilitation agency, and was also the Director of Programs at South Florida State Hospital. Carol is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with dual Master’s degrees in Social Work and Public Administration.

Principal, Steve Coe Consulting

Steve Coe has dedicated his career to improving mental health care and advancing the human rights of people with mental health concerns. As CEO of Community Access, he leads by example, affirmatively hiring mental health consumers at all levels of the organization, and developing mental health models that are being replicated throughout the world. Steve recognizes the invaluable contributions and expertise of people with firsthand experience of the mental health care system.

Steve was one of the first board members of Coalition for the Homeless and the Supportive Housing Network of New York, and is former president of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation. He chaired two NY/NY Campaigns and the statewide Campaign for Mental Health Housing, which helped secure financing for thousands of new housing units, and was invited to testify before Congress on the “Examining H.R. 2646, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act.”

Steve has led numerous task forces and coalitions advocating for systemic change and improved mental health services that focus on safety, security, and improved access to health care for people with mental illness. He also formed a coalition calling for increased police training and collaborations with mental health care professionals for officers dealing with ‘emotionally disturbed’ 911 calls. In 2014, the Mayor’s Office subsequently invested $130 million in training and support. Steve received the 2016 National Council for Behavioral Health Advocate of the Year Award for his advocacy efforts.

Founding Principal, Dover, Kohl & Partners

Victor Dover serves as principal-in-charge for many of the firm's design and planning projects. He has led more than 150 charrettes. Victor lectures widely around the nation on the topics of livable communities and sustainable development, and was national chair of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) from 2010 to 2012. He recently coauthored, with John Massengale, the bestselling book Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns (Wiley 2014). Victor has been awarded the John Nolen Medal for contributions to urbanism, and is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Miami.

Founder, Anamakos and Map-Collective.com

Tara Gupta is an interdisciplinary artist and an innovative environmental and social entrepreneur. She is a recent graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, a current MBA candidate at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, and the founder of two major initiatives for the environment and our collective quality of life; Anamakos, a sustainable and collaborative living initiative, and Map-Collective.com, a global hub mapping environmental data, carbon and greenhouse gas metrics, and supply chain flows.

Prior to founding Seth Harry and Associates, Inc., in 1992, Mr. Harry was Design Director for the late James Rouse’s Enterprise Development Company where he contributed to many successful retail and entertainment development projects in Japan, Australia, Ireland and the United States.

Chief of Staff, Chattanooga Mayor's Office

Kerry Hayes is the Chief of Staff to Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke. In this capacity, Kerry provides ongoing political and policy guidance to further the mayor's agenda, in addition to advising the Mayor and Senior Staff on special projects including the Mayor's Council Against Hate, the Chattanooga Dream economic mobility initiative, and various economic and community development efforts. Prior to joining Mayor Berke's staff, Kerry was a small business owner, fund development professional for a South Memphis youth development nonprofit, and Special Assistant to Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, Jr.

Manager, Urban Design Center, City of Charlotte

With a background in urban design and planning, Mrs. Holmes is committed to building livable communities. She has extensive charrette design experience, actively working with stakeholders to reach sustainable, implementable solutions. Prior to joining the city she consulted over 40 communities, both big and small, on planning issues. She is experienced in placemaking, transit oriented design, neighborhood design, graphic design, and project management. With both public and private sector experience, Monica designs spaces and places that inspire people to have fun, get engaged, and love their community. She is thrilled to be working for her hometown, bringing her international design experience to her own backyard. Since beginning with the City of Charlotte she has focused on building an urban design and placemaking program that builds social capital and transforms the way the city thinks about the built environment leading projects such as Open Streets 704 and GovPorch. She recently was on special assignment, leading the rewrite of a new Transit Oriented Development Zoning Ordinance. After a year and a half of engagement and drafting, the ordinance was unanimously adopted by the Charlotte City Council, charting a new path for existing and proposed development along the transit corridors. Monica currently is the Managing Designer for the City of Charlotte’s Urban Design Center.

NTBA Board President, Carlton Landing

Grant Humphreys is a Principal of Humphreys Capital and serves on the Investment Committee. He has 24 years of experience in real estate development and investments. Grant worked for Trammell Crow Company in Dallas and Oklahoma City. In the 2000’s, he assembled the largest self-storage portfolio in the state. During this time, he also developed luxury, LEED certified condominiums in downtown Oklahoma City. In 2010, Grant founded Carlton Landing, a DPZ-designed lakefront resort community in southeast Oklahoma. As Town Founder of Carlton Landing, Grant directs the long-term development and culture building strategy. Key initiatives include forming a new municipality, creating a TIF District, and crafting a public-private partnership with the Corps of Engineers for federal lands surrounding Carlton Landing. With his wife, Jen, Grant founded Carlton Landing Academy, the first rural charter school in Oklahoma. Grant is the current President of the National Town Builders Association. Grant earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Real Estate from Baylor University in 1998 and is currently pursuing an MBA with TRIUM—a combined business program from NYU Stern, HEC Paris, and The London School of Economics. Grant is an instrument rated pilot, enjoys traveling and time in the outdoors. He and Jen have 5 children and live in Oklahoma City.

NTBA Director, New Urban Connections

Monica Johnson is the president of New Urban Connections, a sales and marketing consulting firm for developers that create great places based upon the principles of New Urbanism. Monica generates sales revenue through the management of integrated sales and marketing processes. She has more than 20 years of sales, marketing, advertising, and public relations experience in real estate, senior housing, and health care. Her clients include the noted New Urbanist developer, LeylandAlliance, of Tuxedo, New York and numerous communities. Ms. Johnson’s affiliations have included memberships in the Congress of New Urbanism, Seaside Institute, New York State and Hudson Gateway Association of REALTORS, National Association of Homebuilders, and the National Sales and Marketing Council. She has been a speaker at the Congress for New Urbanism’s annual conference, the NAHB International Builders Show, National Town Builders Association’s Roundtables, and presented at numerous regional conferences.

Partner, DPZ

Marina Khoury is an architect, urban designer and planner, with more than sixteen years of experience in a broad range of project types from regional plans to new community and redevelopment plans and regulations, to building designs including affordable housing.

Fluent in several languages, she has designed and managed projects across the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, including new communities ranging in size from 50 to 2,000 acres (30 to 1,600 hectares), brownfield redevelopment, agricultural urbanism, and form-based zoning codes, among them Miami 21, a new zoning code for the City of Miami. Khoury’s experience includes managing complex public projects and teams, leading charrettes and other public meetings, and guiding approvals processes.

She is active in Washington area civic groups, including the local chapters of the American Institute of Architects and of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and she lectures on affordable, sustainable and walkable communities.

Executive Director, Midtown KC Now

Urban designer, architect, planner, zoning wonk, redeveloper and wanna-be musician Kevin Klinkenberg returned to Kansas City from Savannah, Georgia last year, having recently completed a four-year stint as Executive Director of the Savannah Development and Renewal Authority. In 2018, Kevin & SDRA led the first new master plan for downtown Savannah in decades, timed to coincide with the city’s tricentennial in 2033. While in Savannah, he also published his first book, “Why I Walk: Taking a Step in the Right Direction.” He also recently authored “A House Hacking Catalog” for the Project for Lean Urbanism.

Kevin currently is the Executive Director of Midtown KC Now, the premier community development organization for Midtown Kansas City. He previously co-founded 180 Urban Design & Architecture in Kansas City. He’s worked with clients in nearly all of the continental 48 states, in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Kevin has been a regular speaker on design and planning issues for more than two decades and stays focused on place-making through his blog “The Messy City - Embracing change, unpredictability and local initiative”.

Principal, Street Plans

Mike Lydon is a Principal at Street Plans, and leads the firm’s New York City office. Mike is an internationally recognized planner, writer, speaker, and advocate for livable cities. NPR, The New York Times, CNN Headline News, ABC News, City Lab, Salon, Next City, Wired, and Monocle have featured his work, among many other publications. Having delivered more than 250 keynotes, workshops, trainings, and lectures since 2009, Mike has exerted a global influence on how people think about city transformation. In 2018, Mike was named by Planetizen as one of the top 100 most influential urbanists of all-time.

Mike is the creator of the The Open Streets Project and the globally acclaimed Tactical Urbanism: Short-Term Action, Long-Term Change Vol. 1 – 5. With Tony Garcia, Mike is the recipient of the 2017 Seaside Prize and co-author of Tactical Urbanism (Island Press, 2015), named by Planetizen as one of the top planning books of the past decade. Mike collaborated with Andres Duany and Jeff Speck in writing The Smart Growth Manual (McGraw-Hill, 2009).

A founding member of the New England Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, a Board Member for CNU New York, and a steering committee member of the Next Generation of New Urbanists, he remains active in both local and national planning, design, and smart growth advocacy issues. He lectures frequently and leads workshops and trainings on the topics of smart growth, tactical urbanism, public space,and complete streets/active transportation. Before launching the firm in 2009, Mike worked for Smart Growth Vermont, the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, and Ann Arbor’s GetDowntown Program. From 2006 – 2009 Lydon worked for Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company (DPZ), an international leader in the practice of smart growth planning, design, and research techniques.

Mike currently serves on Transportation Alternative’s Executive Committee for the New York City Harbor Ring project, and is an advisor to the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. Mike received a B.A. in American Cultural Studies from Bates College and a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. He encourages you to trade four wheels for two.

Director of Planning, Preservation and Sustainability, City of Charleston

Jacob Lindsey is the Director of Planning, Preservation and Sustainability for the City of Charleston, South Carolina. He’s also held the title of Director of the Civic Design Center for the City of Charleston and Principal at Fabric Urban Design. His portfolio includes city planning policy, urban design, landscape and architectural design.

His work has been reported in the New York Times, the Guardian UK, and Monocle Magazine, and featured in publication by gestalten.

NTBA Board Members, TND Partners, LLC

Aaron Lubeck is a designer + builder practicing in Durham, North Carolina. A former resident of seven college towns, he specializes in complex neighborhood infill projects, zoning codes, unique financing stacks, and incremental development. Aaron is the author of Green Restorations: Sustainable Building in Historic Homes (New Society), and a former lecturer at Duke University’s Nicholas School for the Environment. As President Emeritus of Trinity Design | Build, he presided over multiple ambitious sustainable retrofits, including the first privately-developed LEED Platinum building in North Carolina. When not sketching site plans on his iPad, he can be seen lobbying for bicycle boulevards, tossing frisbees to his poorly-behaved golden retriever and singing songs from North Carolina in his cover band.

Principal, Ferrell Madden LLC

Mary Madden has nearly 30 years of experience in the fields of urban planning and design, community development, and historic preservation at the federal, state, and local levels. Her practice includes town planning and urban design for public and private sector clients, with an emphasis on revising zoning codes to promote smart growth, sustainability and New Urbanism. In addition to working directly with communities, Mary frequently speaks and writes on the topics of urban design and form-based codes. Before joining Ferrell Madden in 2002, Mary served for almost a decade in several positions at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Earlier in her career, she worked for the Mayors’ Institute on City Design and at the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. Mary holds a Master of Urban and Environmental Planning degree from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Princeton University. She was a founding board member of the Form-Based Codes Institute (now a program of Smart Growth America).

Vice President, Project for Public Spaces

Elena Madison is an urban planner with rich experience in the planning and design of parks, plazas, campuses, and the public spaces of civic and cultural institutions. Elena is a dedicated practitioner of collaborative work in all aspects of place making from visioning, concept development and design, to programming, place management and implementation. Among her many responsibilities, Elena is leading PPS’ place management initiative helping communities manage their public spaces to create inclusive, intentional, livable and connected social environments. Social inclusion of vulnerable and underserved groups in public space is a particular focus of her efforts.

Elena holds a Master's degree in Urban Planning from Hunter College, City University of New York. She is a member of the American Planning Association.

Council Member, City of Asheville

Julie Mayfield was elected to Asheville City Council in 2015, and she leads council’s work on transportation, the environment, and clean energy. She chairs council’s Planning and Economic Development Committee and Housing and Community Development Committee. She is also the co-director of MountainTrue, a regional environmental advocacy organization. She has served on and/or chaired numerous board and commissions, including Asheville’s Multi-Modal Commission, Transit Committee, North Carolina’s Mountain Resources Commission, the WNC Chapter of the ACLU, the Environmental Quality Institute, and the North Carolina Conservation Network. She also won the March 3, 2020 Democratic primary and will compete in the November election to represent District 49 in the North Carolina Senate.

Prior to moving to Asheville and MountainTrue in 2008, she was the Vice President and General Counsel for the Georgia Conservancy where she worked on policy issues in the areas of air and water quality, natural areas, quality growth, and coastal conservation. Prior to the Conservancy, she directed the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law and practiced environmental law at Kilpatrick Stockton. She is a graduate of Leadership Asheville, Leadership Atlanta, and the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership. She is a graduate of Davidson College and Emory University School of Law.

Principal, Urban3

Joe Minicozzi is an urban planner imagining new ways to think about and visualize land use, urban design and economics. Joe founded Urban3 to explain and visualize market dynamics created by tax and land use policies. Urban3's work establishes new conversations across multiple professional sectors, policy makers, and the public to creatively address the challenges of urbanization. Urban3’s extensive studies range geographically over 30 states, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Principal and Founder, Nequette Architecture & Design

A native of Birmingham, Alabama and a graduate of Auburn University, Louis has always been fascinated with the creation of place. To launch his new firm in 1999 he designed a fire station, the first commercial building at a new town called Mt. Laurel where he was introduced to New Urbanism and started learning the principles of traditional neighborhood development. Even though much of his earlier work was highlighted by custom residential projects, this enlightenment of community planning has been a foundation in Louis’ work ever since.

“It’s all about community building. Architecture is nothing but an opportunity to bring people together. It can segregate or create community. Few people outside the dense urban areas of America realize how much community planning defines their daily life.”

Louis has always been as interested in the business relationships with developers and the clients – the people – just as much as the beautiful work. These two types of work, custom-driven and developer-driven, can form a dialogue with each other, where a cross-pollination of ideas from one can inform the other.

Louis focuses his collaborative energies to innovate new solutions for community building in the 21 st century. Whether it be student housing villages, multi-family buildings in new town centers, infill mixed-use buildings in downtown, or market-rate residential neighborhoods, all of these building types help shape our public realm and create community. For Louis Nequette, the real strength of architecture is not necessarily the buildings. It is instead the space between the buildings, the community nurtured by planning and beauty.

Principal-in-Charge, Urban Design Associates

Megan leads projects as a Principal-in-Charge, as well as team design efforts. Megan’s passion is in promoting urban environments that are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. She has worked on a wide range of projects across the USA and Canada, and she’s an active member of the American Planning Association.

Director of Health and Human Service Center, Housing Authority of Bergen County, New Jersey

In 2015, Julia assumed leadership of Bergen County’s strategic plan to end veteran homelessness, a goal achieved in 2016. By 2017 the county became the first in the nation to end chronic homeless and the only community to date to sustain this for more than one year. Julia was honored by First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House for her efforts and is the recipient of numerous awards from civic and veteran organizations.

From 2012-14, Ms. Orlando served as a member of the Governor’s Interagency Council to End Homelessness and from 2015-2017 on the Governor’s Homeless Work Group charged with implementing the recommendations of the Council.

Julia also serves on the faculty of the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, has provided consultation and training for a wide variety of non-profit organizations, and is a nationally sought after speaker. Julia earned her BS in Psychology from Fordham University and dual Master’s degrees from Columbia University.

NTBA Board Member, Pinewood Forest

Rob has over 30 years of experience in organizational leadership on a local, national and international level. As the President of Pinewood Forest, Rob is responsible for providing leadership for our innovative mixed-use development.

Alderman, City of Fayetteville, Arkansas

Matthew has a keen interest in the future of cities and has a generalist's skillset for reshaping metropolitan landscapes. From municipal budgeting and consensus management to site planning and cash flow projections, Matthew has demonstrated success in public and private sector planning and development projects.

He serves as Alderman in Fayetteville, Arkansas and chairs the Transportation Committee, which advises the Mayor on all transportation-related matters, as well as Chair of the Advertising and Promotion Commission, which funds quality of life initiatives as a component of broader tourism goals.

Matthew is also Founder and Principal of Infill Group, a planning firm which also develops small-scale residential and mixed-use real estate projects. In addition to his own projects, he provides preliminary financial projections and site assessments for developers of infill projects in the South and Midwest.

Co-Founder, Urban Village

Accomplished in business, construction, world traveling, Jerry is a graduate of Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management where he earned his MBA. He has worked for companies in domestic and international assignments that had revenue ranging from $40 million to $16 billion annually including Honda R&D, EDS, Deloitte & Touche, Omnium Worldwide, and NDS.

For the past 15 years, Jerry has built, renovated, and managed apartments in West Omaha and devotes 100% of his time to pursue his real estate development ambitions. He has a team who builds and manages apartments with 1,200 units in his current portfolio.

President, People Places LLC

Frank Starkey is a real estate developer with deep experience developing pedestrian oriented neighborhoods. As co-founder (with his brother, Trey) of Longleaf, a 568-acre Traditional Neighborhood Development just Northwest of Tampa he was intimately involved in neighborhood design, entitlement, engineering, permitting, construction, builder program, architectural review (using a form-based design code) marketing, homeowner association, mixed-use development and property management (he even operated a coffee shop in its Downtown!) From 2005 through 2012 the brothers co-managed the planning, engineering, entitlements, marketing and sale of Starkey Ranch, a 2,500-acre multi-use development planned for the family’s remaining land. In December, 2012, Frank and Trey closed a multi-year phased sale of the ranch to Wheelock Street Capital, which is now developing the project.

In 2013 Frank founded People Places, LLC, a real estate development, design and consulting company. Drawing on his broad experience, the People Places goal is to craft vibrant, people- oriented residential and/or retail places in walkable settings. The firm is intimately involved in the redevelopment of New Port Richey, Florida, where it is building The Central, 85 downtown residential apartments, and renovating 5800 Main a 10,000 square foot commercial building that will anchor downtown with a natural food store, microbrewery, CrossFit gym and other retailers. In addition, People Places hosts Talk About Town, a public forum for community issues where urban design is a recurring subject.

Throughout his career Frank has been at the leading edge of New Urbanism, serving as board member and president/chairperson of the National Town Builders Association and The Seaside Institute; as a member of the Rollins College Masters of Planning in Civic Urbanism advisory board, and as the first Developer in Residence at the University of Miami’s Masters in Real Estate + Urbanism (MRED+U) program. Frank is a frequent presenter at the Congress for the New Urbanism, Form Based Codes Institute, and other state and national conferences, and has participated in various steering committees, symposia and summit meetings related to urban development. He currently serves as Secretary of the Board of Congress for the New Urbanism, the premier national organization championing walkable urban places.

A licensed architect and member of the American Institute of Architects, Frank holds undergraduate and professional degrees in architecture and urban design from Rice University, is CNU (Congress for the New Urbanism) Accredited, and a member of CNU, Urban Land Institute and Leadership Florida (Class XXVII).

Principal, Zimmerman/Volk Associates
Board Chair, Congress for the New Urbanism

Laurie Volk is principal in charge of Zimmerman/Volk Associates market studies and is the firm's primary analyst of demographic, market, and lifestyle trends. Volk has been directly involved with every market study completed by Zimmerman/Volk Associates since the company's founding in 1988. Volk's development of analytical tools to determine the market potential for downtown housing; for mixed-income, mixed-tenure repopulation and stabilization of fragile inner-city neighborhoods, and for new mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented traditional neighborhoods has been instrumental in bringing Zimmerman/Volk Associates into national prominence. Since 1988, the firm has completed more than 450 market studies for properties ranging in size from the redevelopment of a block, to the establishment of a new town on several thousand acres. She has conducted more than 70 downtown studies across the country, in cities ranging in size from Albion, Michigan to Baltimore, Maryland.

Volk currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Remaking Cities Institute. She was a founding board member of the National Charrette Institute, and served for more than a dozen years on the Board of Governors of the Seaside Institute. She also served as a member of the Technical Advisory Group for Location and Planning of the US Green Building Council. Volk was a recipient of a 2002 Knight Fellowship in Community Building, and has been an instructor on market analysis for the Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania. She and her partner, Todd Zimmerman, are recipients of the 2015 Seaside Prize. Prior to Zimmerman/Volk Associates, Ms. Volk established international credentials for her observations of consumer and economic trends as a writer and researcher for The Times of London, and as a member of the prestigious Insight Team of The Sunday Times. In addition, she was chief of research for over a dozen Sunday Times books, covering topics ranging from finance to commercial aviation. She is a graduate of Duke University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Project Manager, Urban Design Associates

Ashleigh serves as a project manager and senior member on one of UDA’s design teams. She loves to travel, exploring and documenting streets, neighborhoods and cities, in her sketchbook. Ashleigh serves as an active member of the National Organization of Minority Architects and the Congress of New Urbanism. Ashleigh enjoys walking to work as one of Pittsburgh’s Downtown residents.

City Manager, City of Sandusky

Eric Wobser is the City Manager for the City of Sandusky. He is a Sandusky native with significant experience in municipal government and community development. Eric previously served as Special Projects Manager to the Mayor of the City of Cleveland from 2006 to 2009 and as Executive Director of Ohio City Incorporated from late 2009 until June, 2014.

Eric served as an Americorps member with City Year Cleveland from 2001 - 2002 and was an inaugural member of the Cleveland Executive Fellowship in 2005 - 2006. In 2013, he spent several weeks in Europe analyzing Transatlantic relations as an American Marshall Memorial Fellow, a program of the German Marshall Fund. Eric is a graduate of Ohio University (B.A. Political Science - 2002) and the University of Michigan Law School (J.D. - 2005).

Director Emeritus, Zimmerman/Volk Associates

Todd Zimmerman is a co-founder of Zimmerman/Volk Associates. The company, because of its unique target market methodology, is recognized as the national expert on the residential market feasibility of urban and new urban communities.

Zimmerman was one of the framers of the Charter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, a member of the CNU Board of Directors, and the CNU executive committee. He is a CNU Fellow.

In 2015, Zimmerman and co-managing director Laurie Volk were the recipients of the Seaside Prize, which is presented annually to an individual or organizations that have made significant contributions to the quality and character of communities.